The death of the great white shark near Geraldton is being investigated by the Department of Fisheries.
A shark seen thrashing about in the shallows of a Geraldton beach and later washed up dead, died because it had a sea lion stuck in its throat.
The death of the tagged great white shark near Geraldton was investigated by the Department of Fisheries.
The shark was filmed by a number of bystanders on a beach in the Mid-West on Saturday, as it swam into the shallows, beaching itself at times and thrashing about a few metres from the shore.
A video of the shark's behaviour was posted on YouTube on July 12 and has since had more than 17,000 views.
The shark was found washed ashore at Coronation Beach, about 28 kilometres north of Geraldton.
Principal research scientist Dr Rory McAuley said the shark had been fitted with an acoustic tag, which has been handed in to the department.
The tag was being sent to Perth for identification.
Tash Tapper, who captured the footage of the shark while at the beach with her family on Saturday said it was a surreal experience to see a shark acting so strangely and coming so close to the beach.
She said police were at the beach after being made aware that a shark was in the area, they had earlier warned surfers to get out of the water following a warning from the Fisheries Department of a shark sighting in the area.
Mrs Tapper said she watched the shark swim in close to the shore, back out and back in for almost two hours.
She said while initially onlookers tried to assist the shark when it beached itself on a reef, they soon realised the shark was not well and might not be able to be helped.
“To me it seemed it was coming in to die,” Mrs Tapper said.
The shark was found thrashing about before it was found dead.
The current shark tagging and monitoring program in WA began in an experimental phase in 2008 with a more dedicated and comprehensive white shark monitoring program established in late 2011.
The program is designed to record information about shark behaviour in WA and is part of a greater shark mitigation scheme introduced following a spate of fatal shark attacks in the state.
The network monitors more than 300 sharks with external tags, less than half of those are great white sharks, the species identified as being responsible for recent fatal attacks in WA and some also have internal tags.